COVID-19 Vaccination of Individuals with Down Syndrome-Data from the Trisomy 21 Research Society Survey on Safety, Efficacy, and Factors Associated with the Decision to Be Vaccinated

Anke Hüls; Patrick T Feany; Sophia Isabella Zisman; Alberto C S Costa; Mara Dierssen; Robert Balogh; Stefania Bargagna; Nicole T Baumer; Ana Claudia Brandão; Angelo Carfi; Brian Allen Chicoine; Sujay Ghosh; Monica Lakhanpaul; Johannes Levin; Yona Lunsky; Coral Manso; Eitan Okun; Diego Real de Asua; Anne-Sophie Rebillat; Tilman R Rohrer; Giuseppina Sgandurra; Diletta Valentini; Stephanie L Sherman; Andre Strydom; On Behalf Of The Trisomy Research Society Covid-Initiative

doi:10.3390/vaccines10040530

COVID-19 Vaccination of Individuals with Down Syndrome-Data from the Trisomy 21 Research Society Survey on Safety, Efficacy, and Factors Associated with the Decision to Be Vaccinated

Vaccines (Basel). 2022 Mar 29;10(4):530. doi: 10.3390/vaccines10040530.

Authors

Anke Hüls^{1

2}, Patrick T Feany¹, Sophia Isabella Zisman³, Alberto C S Costa^{4

5}, Mara Dierssen^{6

7

8}, Robert Balogh⁹, Stefania Bargagna¹⁰, Nicole T Baumer¹¹, Ana Claudia Brandão¹², Angelo Carfi¹³, Brian Allen Chicoine¹⁴, Sujay Ghosh¹⁵, Monica Lakhanpaul^{16

17}, Johannes Levin^{18

19

20}, Yona Lunsky²¹, Coral Manso²², Eitan Okun^{23

24

25}, Diego Real de Asua²⁶, Anne-Sophie Rebillat²⁷, Tilman R Rohrer²⁸, Giuseppina Sgandurra^{10

29}, Diletta Valentini³⁰, Stephanie L Sherman³¹, Andre Strydom^{3

32

33}, On Behalf Of The Trisomy Research Society Covid-Initiative

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
² Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
³ South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London SE5 8AZ, UK.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.
⁵ Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.
⁶ Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08016 Barcelona, Spain.
⁷ Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), 08016 Barcelona, Spain.
⁸ Centrode Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER), 08016 Barcelona, Spain.
⁹ Faculty of Health Sciences, Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, ON L1G 0C5, Canada.
¹⁰ Department of Developmental Neuroscience, IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, 56128 Calambrone, Italy.
¹¹ Department of Neurology, Division of Developmental Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
¹² Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Sao Paulo 01000-000, SP, Brazil.
¹³ Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, 00100 Rome, Italy.
¹⁴ Advocate Medical Group Adult Down Syndrome Center, Park Ridge, IL 60068, USA.
¹⁵ Cytogenetics and Genomics Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 700073, India.
¹⁶ Department of Population Policy and Practice, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College, London WC1N 1EH, UK.
¹⁷ Community Paediatrics, Whittington Health NHS, London N19 5NF, UK.
¹⁸ Department of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80539 Munich, Germany.
¹⁹ German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Site Munich, 53127 Munich, Germany.
²⁰ Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), 81377 Munich, Germany.
²¹ Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre, CAMH, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada.
²² Down España, 28001 Madrid, Spain.
²³ The Paul Feder Laboratory on Alzheimer's Disease Research, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
²⁴ The Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
²⁵ The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
²⁶ Department of Internal Medicine and Instituto de Investigación Biomédica-La Princesa, Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, 28001 Madrid, Spain.
²⁷ Institut Jérôme Lejeune, 75015 Paris, France.
²⁸ Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, Department of Pediatrics and Neonatology, Saarland University Medical Center, 66424 Homburg, Germany.
²⁹ Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy.
³⁰ Pediatric Unit, Pediatric Emergency Department, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS, 00165 Rome, Italy.
³¹ Department of Human Genetics, School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
³² Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London SE5 8AB, UK.
³³ The London Down Syndrome (LonDownS) Consortium, London SE5 8AB, UK.

Abstract

Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) are among the groups with the highest risk for severe COVID-19. Better understanding of the efficacy and risks of COVID-19 vaccines for individuals with DS may help improve uptake of vaccination. The T21RS COVID-19 Initiative launched an international survey to obtain information on safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines for individuals with DS. De-identified survey data collected between March and December 2021 were analyzed. Of 2172 individuals with DS, 1973 (91%) had received at least one vaccine dose (57% BNT162b2), 107 (5%) were unvaccinated by choice, and 92 (4%) were unvaccinated for other reasons. Most participants had either no side effects (54%) or mild ones such as pain at the injection site (29%), fatigue (12%), and fever (7%). Severe side effects occurred in <0.5% of participants. About 1% of the vaccinated individuals with DS contracted COVID-19 after vaccination, and all recovered. Individuals with DS who were unvaccinated by choice were more likely to be younger, previously recovered from COVID-19, and also unvaccinated against other recommended vaccines. COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to be safe for individuals with DS and effective in terms of resulting in minimal breakthrough infections and milder disease outcomes among fully vaccinated individuals with DS.

Keywords: Ad26.COV2.S; BNT162b2; COVID-19; ChAdOx1 nCoV-19; SARS-CoV-2; Trisomy 21; down syndrome; mRNA-1273; vaccine hesitancy.

Abstract

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